Rebecca Pickering

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12080803/rebecca-pickering
Rebecca White Pickering
BIRTH
18 Jul 1754
Bristol, Bristol Unitary Authority, Bristol, England
DEATH
14 Aug 1828 (aged 74)
Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA
BURIAL
Broad Street Cemetery
Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA
MEMORIAL ID
12080803 · View Source
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MEMORIAL
PHOTOS 2
FLOWERS 9
Family Members
Spouse

Timothy Pickering
1745–1829
Children

John Pickering
1777–1846
Timothy Pickering
1779–1807

Edward Pickering
1787–1793

Octavius Pickering
1791–1868

Mary Pickering Nichols

Rebecca Pickering formerly White

Born 18 Jul 1754 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England

Daughter of Benjamin White and Elizabeth (Miller) White

[sibling%28s%29 unknown]

Wife of Timothy Pickering — married 8 Apr 1776 in Bradford, Essex, Massachusetts

Mother of John Pickering, Henry Pickering, Charles Pickering, William Pickering, Edward Pickering, George Pickering, Octavius Pickering, Elizabeth Pickering and Mary (Pickering) Nichols

Died 15 Aug 1828 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, United States

Profile last modified 13 Aug 2018 | Created 10 Mar 2015

Biography

Former Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, in a note to Sam Putnam of Salem, [1], records his wife's parents as "Benjamin White of Boston in Massachusetts" and "Elizabeth Miller of Bristol" -- in context clearly meaning Bristol, England. In her "Life of John Pickering"[2], Mary Orne Pickering describes Rebecca's 1865 emigration from Bristol with her parents, and then her parents' deaths in 1770 and 1771, "leaving her an orphan at the age of seventeen". She lived with members of her father's family thereafter.

Rebecca married Timothy Pickering on April 8, 1776[3]; Mary Orne Pickering notes that the wedding is believed to have been at the home of Rebecca's aunt, Mary (White) Edwards, in Bradford, in the countryside north of Boston in Essex County. The Revolution, Mary Pickering describes, swiftly intervened in their lives, as Timothy -- commissioned as a colonel -- went off to New York and New Jersey as the leader of a Massachusetts regiment; he was subsequently assigned by George Washington to the War Office, and in 1779 Rebecca and their young son John joined him in Philadelphia. They moved the following year, with the army, to New York, and subsequently back to Philadelphia at the close of the war; thence to the relative wilds of Wyoming, Pennsylvania -- well to the northwest -- but then back to Philadelphia with Timothy's 1791 appointment by Washington as postmaster-general. In the years following, he served as Secretary of War and Secretary of State under Washington and Adams, until replaced by Adams in 1800. He was later elected as a senator from Massachusetts.

The family established a farm in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1800, but by 1802 Timothy had also hired an existing farm in Beverly, close to Salem, and this was their primary dwelling-place until the 1806 purchase of a farm in nearby Wenham that Mary Orne Pickering describes as "large and valuable", "with a commodious and excellent house upon it". Timothy and Rebecca lived there until moving into Salem in their later years; Rebecca died in the Salem house in 1828, her husband following her the next year.

Research notes: Mary Orne Nichols notes that Rebecca's "only sister", Elizabeth "Betsey" White, came from England in 1785. She is named as "Mrs. Ruff" in an early 1801 letter from Timothy Pickering to his son John. Other White family relationships outlined by Nichols (pp. 214-215): John m. Sarah White (b. at Salem 23 July, 1777), eldest dau. of merchant Isaac White (lost at sea in 1780) and Sarah (Leavitt) White (later the wife of NH merchant John Payson; they had two daughters); Isaac was a son of John White of Billerica, Mass., brother of Capt. Benjamin White, Rebecca's father. Sarah (White) Pickering had a sister, Mary Henley White, apparently younger.

Mary Pickering's biography of her father John Pickering also adds these Pickering family relationships, citing "Life of Timothy Pickering": her father's brother Timothy, Jr., "was married at Starucca [PA] Dec. 29, 1804. His wife was Lurena Cole. Their son Charles was born Nov. 10, 1805. Another son, Edward [named after a brother of John and Timothy who died very young], was born at Wenham, Oct. 2, 1807."

Sources

↑ Massachusetts Town Clerk records, Births, marriages, deaths 1730-1850 vol 3, Salem [1] ↑ Life of John Pickering, Vol. 2, by Mary Orne Pickering, p. 1-2 [2] ↑ The Essex Institute, Vital Records of Salem, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849 Volume IV - Marriages M - Z (Salem, Mass. 1924) p. 194, [3] Birth (includes image of original handwritten record of information provided by Timothy Pickering): Massachusetts Town Clerk records, Births, marriages, deaths 1730-1850 vol 3, Salem [4] Death: "Massachusetts Deaths and Burials, 1795-1910," database, FamilySearch ([5] : 10 February 2018), Rebecca Pickering, 15 Aug 1828; citing Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, reference vA p193; see also Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 05 August 2018), memorial page for Rebecca White Pickering (18 Jul 1754–14 Aug 1828), Find A Grave Memorial no. 12080803, citing Broad Street Cemetery, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA ; Maintained by Dan Silva (contributor 46781334), [6]